Creating a Crime Novel
In my role as Editor of SHERLOCK magazine and the CWA's monthly publication Red Herrings, I have talked to many crime writers about the practical task of creating a crime novel and it seems, in general, writers take one of two paths.
There is the writer who plots and plans the narrative down to the finest detail so that when they begin to type the first chapter, they know exactly where they are going. They know each twist and turn of the plot, every nuance and surprise which the reader will encounter along the way. This is a very business-like approach, one in which a great deal of thought and hard work has gone into the project before a word is typed. Probably the most renowned practitioner of this approach is P. D. James. She is thorough in her planning and one occasion she told me that when she is in the throes of writing a novel, she might get up one morning and feel like writing Chapter Ten and then the following day she'll work on Chapter Three, so carefully is everything planned and laid out.
The other approach, one which I practise myself, involves the writer starting with an idea and enjoying the journey the imagination takes one on while following this idea. Ann Cleeves, another writer who takes this path, talks about the enjoyment of surprise and discovery in the process. The drawback with approaching your novel in this fashion is that you often have to rewrite the opening because the denouement — which comes organically from your writing and was unknown and unplanned — does not fit the beginning.
I remember interviewing Ian Rankin some years ago and at the time he told me that he was on page 59 of a new novel and that he had just killed a character off. He didn't know why he had done this and he didn't know who the murderer was, but he assured me that 'it will all resolve itself in the end.' And, of course it did.
Apparently when Ruth Rendell is working on a whodunit, on reaching the end, she changes the identity of the murderer and then goes back through the book, altering events to fit in with the new culprit. This way, she maintains, it is more likely to surprise the reader.
Which ever approach a writer takes, writing a crime novel is a gruelling creative task, but seeing your finished book being snatched off the shelf by an eager reader is well worth the effort.
David Stuart Davies on Monday, February 1st 2005 @ 04:12 PM GMT [link]